Biodiversity and Protected Areas

1. Position Statements 

2. Forestry 

3. Biomass

Position Statements

A Biodiversity Act for Nova Scotia – An Overview and Recommendations 

Ecology Action Centre (represented by Karen McKendry) and East Coast Environmental Law (Lisa Mitchell) have worked together to put forth recommendations for the essential elements of a Biodiversity Act for Nova Scotia. The recommendations are described in this paper: “A Biodiversity Act for Nova Scotia – An Overview and Recommendations”.  

The recommendations are based upon: 

• International and national commitments to conserve and restore biodiversity. 

• Research on biodiversity laws and similar tools from other jurisdictions (including Australia and Ontario). 

• Our professional experience in biodiversity conservation and environmental law (20+ years). 

• An examination of the report by the Biodiversity Panel of Expertise as part of the Nova Scotia Natural Resources Strategy 2010 process. 

• A series of conversations EAC and ECELAW hosted with biodiversity conservation and legal practitioners and researchers in January and February of 2019. 

We are thankful to all the people working on biodiversity conservation and environmental law who shared their wisdom with us and informed this work. 

Our understanding is that the Biodiversity Act will be put forward in the spring session of the provincial legislature (commenced on February 28, 2019). Unfortunately, there have been no broad stakeholder or public consultations about the Act leading up to its introduction. 

Read the recommendations here.